On Wednesday IBM
were key Sponsors at the Government Property Event, at the QE11 Conference
Centre in London - http://gp2012.publicsectorconnect.org/.
And what a great conference it was, not just because of the fantastic views of Westminster
on a usually sunny March day. All the sessions were highly informative & I
came away understanding a lot more about the current challenges faced by
government organisations in relation to managing property. This blog is a lot
longer than my normal ones, mainly because of the volume of fantastic content I
wanted to share – so I hope you find it interesting.

Stuart Ladds from
the Government Property Unit (GPU) opened the conference, giving an amusing
assessment of some of the unfairly negative press government organisations have
received when it comes to vacant building management & refurbishments. Stuart
concluded that in the public sector you are “wrong, no matter what you do!”

Stuart then
introduced the first of the plenary speakers – IBMs own Rachel Caldicott, a
managing consultant, who was discussing workplace flexibility - what is current
good practice & where are we heading? Rachel opened by discussing a recent
iGov report, where 47% of Central Gov’t & NHS respondents consider significant
scope in further reduction in workspace requirements though greater adoption of
new technologies & new ways of working. She talked about the benefits
that can be achieved through this – reduced property costs, increased
productivity & attracting top talent who prize flexible ways of working.She discussed the four key components IBM see
are need identify gaps & develop a Workplace Transformation Roadmap –
Organisation & People, Technologies, Processes & Real Estate – the latter
being the part that is often overlooked. She then took the audience through
IBMs own workplace transformation, during the last 20 years, which is estimated
to have saved estimated to saved 2 million square feet globally.

Keith Davis from
the National Audit Office was next up & gave a very interesting talk around
property management benchmarking, discussing the improvements the civil sector
have made since 2008 – costs are down by 5%, size of space is down by 13% &
carbon emissions down by 16.5%, however unfortunately the public sector still remains
behind the public sector in these
areas. He discussed the m² per FTE – which currently stand at around 13.2 m²,
whereas controls for newly acquired buildings state it must be 8 m² per FTE. Keith
wrapped up by talking about the £830M savings that might be made by 2020 – with
reducing space per FTE, hand back of leases, accelerate exit & disposal
etc, but there are also some tough practicalities associated with this target.

Sherin Aminossehe, from the GPU, then took the audience through the public
sector estate today, highlighting some of the difference between various areas
in the UK. She gave valuable advice around what to do with vacant properties –
keep freeholders were possible, look at alternative uses, consultant with all
departments at an early stage etc. She continued by looking at the
consolidation, which have already started in areas such as London, Bristol
& Birmingham. Sherin concluded by echoing Rachel’s thoughts on the importance
of flexible working.

Clive Dutton, OBE, gave the final talk of the plenary session by taking
the audience through the regeneration developments of the London Borough of
Newham in time for the Olympics. I was amazed by the plans, & the variety
of regeneration that will be in place long after this summers event, such as 5
new train stations by 2017 & 35K new homes. I can’t wait to go & visit
the area.

Claire Penny & Joe Potter, our Smarter Building experts, gave a
great session on our initiatives in managing Smarter Buildings. They gave an
example of how IBM have approached a strategic rationalisation project in West
London, where there has been a 40% reduction in the number of desks & 12,
500 m² to be vacated. Claire then took the audience through an example of use
of IBMs Intelligent Building Mgmt product – which as a result of identifying
unknown problems with the Air Handling Unit – & the problems being fixed – there
was a 34% reduction in time per work order AND a 49& reduction in total
work order hours. Great savings were also seen at Tulane university – who saw a
30% reduction in energy costs as a result of the implementation of IIBM.

Joe
Potter then discussed one of IBM’s recent acquisitions – Tririga – which is an
Integrated Workplace Mgmt System. Tririga has five key modules – Real Estate
Portfolio Mgmt, Space & Facilities Mgmt, Operations & Maintenance Mgmt,
Capital Project Mgmt and Energy & Environmental Sustainability. These
modules can be implemented separately, or part of a complete IWMS. Joe
concluded the session by discussing what some of IBMs clients are using Tririga
for – the main points being – improving the utilisation of their portfolio,
operate in an environmentally sustainable way, simplify & improve user experience,
simplify processes, & align their portfolio rapidly to meet changing
business needs.

The final session I attended of the day was led by Stuart Ladds, GPU
& Victoria Mejevitch from the IPD Occupiers, on the use of benchmarking
data in property decisions. Victoria looked at the space per FTE – the highest
being in the legal sector, & lowest in Utilities, which the private sector
being ranked 3rd lowest in terms of space per FTE. She looked at questions
that you need to answer, but can’t be answered without good data – such as how
is your estate performing, where are the best opportunities to make savings, is
you FM delivering value. Various interesting graphs were then shown, highlighting
the use of key buildings, & how much surplus area there currently is,
compared to what there should be by 2020.

Stuart then did a deeper dive of the
cost & space per FTE, & there are some startling high amounts for some
departments. Stuart continued by taking the audience through some of examples
of “to mothball or not to mothball”, where it is important to delve deeper into
the base cost figures you are presented with. He also talked about variations,
even with buildings within metres of each other, in the costs for cleaning and
security – again the differences were crazy! Stuart concluded his session
(& the conference) by talking about their electronic Property & Information
Mapping Services (e-PIMS).

If you are a Maximo
customer, remember that the User Group meeting is taking place on the 2nd May
at IBM Southbank - register via the fantastic new TUC website – http://tivoli-ug.org/default.aspx.

We also have Pulse
Comes To You on 30th May at The Grange, Tower Hill – where our customers &
prospects can learn more about the entire Tivoli portfolio, & there is a
specific track dedicated to Smarter Physical Infrastructure. Registration opens
soon on the IBM UK website.